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Epistemic commitment and cognitive disunity toward fair-value accounting

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  • Sylvain Durocher
  • Yves Gendron

Abstract

This paper critically explores knowledge/professionalization relationships in a jurisdictional context characterized by shifting standards of practice. Focusing on the growing movement toward fair value within accounting standards, we examine practitioners' reactions to the growing compulsory application of fair-value accounting standards. To make sense of these reactions, we introduce the notion of epistemic commitment , that is to say one's degree of allegiance to a given knowledge template. Utilizing 27 interviews with Canadian experienced accountants, we rely on epistemic commitment to analyze the extent of variability in practitioners' reactions to the standardization movement toward fair-value accounting. Our analysis demonstrates an important level of variability in practitioners' epistemic commitment toward fair-value accounting, highlighting a lack of cognitive unity in the field. Our findings point to other important professionalization issues: practitioners' inclinations to refer to profitability issues when reflecting on the appropriateness of standards; practitioners' conception of accounting as an objective technology; practitioners' hesitations in voicing deep-level concerns over implementation ambiguities and lack of professional cognitive authority. Overall, our study raises doubts about the professional status of accountancy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sylvain Durocher & Yves Gendron, 2014. "Epistemic commitment and cognitive disunity toward fair-value accounting," Accounting and Business Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(6), pages 630-655, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acctbr:v:44:y:2014:i:6:p:630-655
    DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2014.938012
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    Cited by:

    1. Himick, Darlene & Brivot, Marion, 2018. "Carriers of ideas in accounting standard-setting and financialization: The role of epistemic communities," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 29-44.
    2. Berlinski, Elise & Morales, Jérémy, 2024. "Digital technologies and accounting quantification: The emergence of two divergent knowledge templates," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    3. Lantto, Anna-Maija, 2022. "Obtaining entity-specific information and dealing with uncertainty: Financial accountants' response to their changing work of financial reporting and the role of boundary objects," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    4. Emily E. Griffith, 2020. "Auditors, Specialists, and Professional Jurisdiction in Audits of Fair Values†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 245-276, March.
    5. Pucci, Richard & Skærbæk, Peter, 2020. "The co-performation of financial economics in accounting standard-setting: A study of the translation of the expected credit loss model in IFRS 9," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    6. Maroun, Warren & van Zijl, Wayne, 2016. "Isomorphism and resistance in implementing IFRS 10 and IFRS 12," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 220-239.
    7. Durocher, Sylvain & Picard, Claire-France & Dugal, Léa, 2024. "Giving sense to and making sense of OCI: When each component makes sense, but the whole does not," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    8. François Brouard & Merridee Bujaki & Sylvain Durocher & Leighann C. Neilson, 2017. "Professional Accountants’ Identity Formation: An Integrative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(2), pages 225-238, May.
    9. Stenka, Renata, 2022. "Beyond intentionality in accounting regulation: Habitual strategizing by the IASB," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    10. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    11. Gendron, Yves & Rodrigue, Michelle, 2021. "On the centrality of peripheral research and the dangers of tight boundary gatekeeping," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    12. Morley Julia, 2022. "The Pluralistic Foundations of Conceptual Veiling," Accounting, Economics, and Law: A Convivium, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 191-210, May.
    13. Duboisée de Ricquebourg, Alan & Maroun, Warren, 2023. "How do auditor rotations affect key audit matters? Archival evidence from South African audits," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    14. van Zijl, Wayne & Maroun, Warren, 2017. "Discipline and punish: Exploring the application of IFRS 10 and IFRS 12," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 42-58.
    15. Ionel Bostan & Ionela-Corina Chersan & Magdalena Danileț & Mihaela Ifrim & Viorica Chirilă, 2020. "Investigations Regarding the Linguistic Register Used by Managers to Convey to Stakeholders a Positive View of Their Company, in the Context of the Business Sustainability Desideratum," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    16. Justin Logie & Warren Maroun, 2021. "Evaluating Audit Quality Using the Results of Inspection Processes Performed by an Independent Regulator," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 31(2), pages 128-149, June.
    17. Berlinski, Elise & Morales, Jérémy & Sponem, Samuel, 2024. "Artificial imaginaries: Generative AIs as an advanced form of capitalism," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    18. Morley, Julia, 2022. "The pluralistic foundations of conceptual veiling," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 114359, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    19. Maroun, Warren & Duboisée de Ricquebourg, Alan, 2024. "How auditors identify and report key audit matters - An organizational routines perspective," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(2).
    20. Mantzari, Elisavet & Georgiou, Omiros, 2019. "Ideological hegemony and consent to IFRS: Insights from practitioners in Greece," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 70-93.
    21. Yasmine Chahed, 2021. "Words and Numbers: Financialization and Accounting Standard‐Setting in the United Kingdom," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(1), pages 302-337, March.
    22. de Vries, Marlies & Blomme, Rob & De Loo, Ivo, 2022. "Part of the herd or black sheep? An exploration of trainee accountants’ suffering and modes of adaptation," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    23. Warren Maroun & Wayne van Zijl & Rottok Chesaina & Robert Garnett, 2022. "The Beautiful Game: Fair Value, Accountability and Accounting for Player Registrations," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 32(3), pages 334-351, September.
    24. Cerbone, Dannielle & Maroun, Warren, 2020. "Materiality in an integrated reporting setting: Insights using an institutional logics framework," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(3).
    25. Senkl, Daniela & Cooper, Christine, 2023. "On valuing (m)other nature in times of climate crises – A reflection on the non and nom of accounting for (m)other nature," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

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